2009 BMW SIMPLE and CLEVER Concept

The BMW Simple is 110 centimeters wide and its configuration for two people sitting one behind the other. Plus it boasts the dynamic driving style typical of a two-wheeler, allowing you to lean right into corners as desired. The designation “simple” is an acronym of the project name “A sustainable and innovative mobility product for low energy consumption”. All that is needed to power this lightweight vehicle with a kerb weight of approx. 450 kg is a 36 kW combustion engine. The BMW Simple weighs 450 kg and is powered by a kW combustion engine. It can get from 0 to 100 km/h in around 10 seconds and has a drag coefficient of 0.18. Using the electric motor and the combustion engine, the Simple would need just 6 kWh (equivalent to 0.7 litres of petrol) or two litres over 100 km.

CLEVER is the acronym for “Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport” and refers to a research project aimed at producing a low-emission, practical city vehicle. The BMW CLEVER is around 3 metres long, 1 metre wide and 1.4 metres tall, weighs in at under 400 kilograms and offers no more than a square metre of frontal area to the airstream. The researchers opted for a fully developed single-cylinder engine with 230 cc displacement and output of 12.5 kW, powered by natural gas from two compressed-gas cylinders. The BMW CLEVER accelerates from standstill to 60 km/h in around 7 seconds, going on to a top speed of approx. 100 km/h. The two gas cylinders each contain 1.7 kilograms of CNG to provide a range of about 200 kilometres.